Mark Rein On The Pervasiveness of UT3 Piracy

[Phopojijo]

These numbers are realistic. Even if you don't want to believe it. 75% of the ppl i know are playing illegal game copies and about 50% are playing illegal copies only.

But why do honest PC players have to be punished for that?

and another thing: There are illegal copies on consoles, too. There are just no CD-keys to prove them. I know people, who learn about cracking the console even before they buy them and dont buy consoles that haven't been cracked yet.

and I'd realy like to do something, but I can't =/

The problem that most people point their finger at:

The typical PC gamer is smart/knowledgeable enough to pirate a game on the PC.

The typical console game is not smart/knowledgeable enough to pirate a game on the console.

The are some console gamers who are smart enough to pirate games... but nowhere near the numbers of PC gamers.

That being said... I don't understand why we need consoles. If we mix the demographics all into 1 platform {pc as it is an open platform} we'd solve all our problems.

 

[SkoobyDoobyDooby]

Who gives a sh!t, WoW and CoD4 get that many LEGAL hits on their servers in a month, let alone 6 months. UT3 is a turd, no matter what they say to try and make it look good, the facts speak for themselves, people aren't playing it, (oh that's right, most people don't play UT online, lol, I love the convenience of that, how pathetic), people never bought it (PC especially), it's a turd. They may try to fix things, but you know the old saying, lets say it together now,

YOU CAN'T POLISH A TURD !!

And Mark Rein, I mean come on, he's well known for speaking the truth, lol, he wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit him on the arse. What a douche.

 

[_Lynx]

and another thing: There are illegal copies on consoles, too. There are just no CD-keys to prove them. I know people, who learn about cracking the console even before they buy them and dont buy consoles that haven't been cracked yet.

The game so far has been released only on PS3. AFAIK there's no way to run pirate copies on it, unlike with Xbox 360.

 

[T2A`]

I said it recently and I'll say it again.

Talking about piracy is worthless when you're talking about a game with very high system requirements for a good experience. That throws things like Crysis and UT3 out of the discussion because they will be pirated more so than games that more people can run properly.

Yet again I'll also cite Sins of a Solar Empire. It's a new niche game that has sold and continues to sell rather well given the piracy of other games. Guess what -- its system requirements aren't too high. Even though its a niche game (meaning it has a smaller potential market base) it's probably outselling Crysis and UT3.

I probably would've been better quoting my own post but since I've typed this far why stop now... Last I checked Sins was #15 on Amazon's PC best-seller list. Crysis #27 (which isn't too shabby) while UT3 wasn't even on the list due to a #101 or worse ranking. Amazon can't give the whole picture but it's at least some evidence.

 

[JaFO]

It raises the question of how many attempts at 'illegal' access games like CoD4 have.
40Million looks like a large number, but until other games are mentioned I'd consider it 'normal' for any game/server that has to verify access.

//
Why do we need pc's ?
Most people are happy with their fixed configurations.

 

[SirYawnalot]

I have a hard time believing that this averages out to 80 attempts per illegal user... hell, even half that sounds pretty excessive; how many times do you have to be booted off to get the message? This could be a pretty vast number of users.

 

[TheSomian]

I said it recently and I'll say it again.

Talking about piracy is worthless when you're talking about a game with very high system requirements for a good experience. That throws things like Crysis and UT3 out of the discussion because they will be pirated more so than games that more people can run properly.

Yet again I'll also cite Sins of a Solar Empire. It's a new niche game that has sold and continues to sell rather well given the piracy of other games. Guess what -- its system requirements aren't too high. Even though its a niche game (meaning it has a smaller potential market base) it's probably outselling Crysis and UT3.

I probably would've been better quoting my own post but since I've typed this far why stop now... Last I checked Sins was #15 on Amazon's PC best-seller list. Crysis #27 (which isn't too shabby) while UT3 wasn't even on the list due to a #101 or worse ranking. Amazon can't give the whole picture but it's at least some evidence.

Why should someone "pirate" a game, if it doesn't run on his/her PC? And if there is a demo? I didn't need crysis and it didn't run well on my system, so I will just get it later for a much lower price.

 

[Severin]

It woz pirates wot dun it, they made ut3 an online failure !
or
Was it that the pc market is in disarry ?
or
Was it Intels fault ?
or
Was it that Pc gamers don't like fps games any more ?
or
Was it aliens ?
or
Maybe they could have finished writing the thing and released a decent quality product.

 

[TheSomian]

if you don't like the product don't buy it

 

[Unregistered]

if you don't like the product don't buy it

and that number apparently is 40 million.

I honestly like UT3, but you cant say its flawless. There is numerous ways that could have been done better in UT3. But if the game was really that solid from the start, it being a ONLINE shooter should make it one of the games suffering the least on pirating.

Im sure epic knows what they did wrong and they will work from there, but blaming it on piracy is L-A-M-E. If they are that afraid go steam or something(certainly better then gamespy ! ;X )

 

[8-4-7-2]

Also, Epic doesn't get the entire 50 bucks obviously. A chunk of that also goes to the retailers and the publisher.

 

[Crotale]

Funny how you idiots keep churning out ridiculous commentary about nothing. Mark only responded to a question in an interview. He never stated in the interview that Epic lost billions of dollars due to pirating; the author of the article speculated the loss. I find it all rather amusing how some of you take every opportunity to bash UT3 and Epic. Actually, there is nothing amusing about you guys at all. You're pathetic.

Hal? How could you post such a title for this thread? Didn't you realize what kind of garbage you would attract?

Just some questions for the idiots: If UT3 on PC sucks so badly, why would anyone bother pirating it in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to pirate a "good" game?
_____________

My take on the piracy issue is that I feel it is more difficult for a pirate to play UT3 online as compared to the previous versions of the game. Hence, lower online numbers. Now, don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm NOT saying that piracy is the reason for low online player counts, but that it is a plausible reason for a portion of that low player count. Face it, UT didn't require a key, and everyone and his brother had a pirated copy of the game, and many played it online.

 

[dragonfliet]

Why would it be better to move to console and not stay with PC and actually try to prevent the piracy? Even if you can get half that number paying for the game its a massive win.

The problem is there isn't a single solution out there that's really that effective. On top of that, the more that you try and lock out pirates, the more that you're going to screw legitimate, paying customers. I, for one, will not buy a game from a company in the future if the game I just plunked down $50 for will not work for me. Sales will go down instead of up and the pirates will still manage to crack the code. The best solution right now is requiring a system like Steam to require validation, but that is full of it's own pitfalls in terms of performance and annoyance and hacks around it have also happened.

It's a sad thing of our days that people feel justified in taking other people's work without paying. Oh well.

~Jason

 

[MonsOlympus]

Well I have said it before that the sims features some very clever copy protection, which could go to its high sales. Its not as bad as 2k's biohazard and isnt as simple as a cdkey but it works. Basically Im saying that the PC market is really big but apparently everyone on consoles pay for all of their games even though they dont have keys or any form of copy protection what so ever.

Personally I dont really like online activation stuff, it certainly does work though but you have to be realistic we all know that Epic wasnt going to sell 40 million copies of UT3 but it does show there is alot of possible buyers out there. I just think it sucks people are happy to pirate games and not think about how its hurting the platform, Im really hating the current trends I mean I dont mind consoles but Im not huge on them and if it continues people are going to be using statistics like this as an excuse to avoid making games for the platform. Even if there is possible potential for much higher sales.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

... Just some questions for the idiots: If UT3 on PC sucks so badly, why would anyone bother pirating it in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to pirate a "good" game? ...

I couldn't agree with you more crotale. I like the game ... I have purchased shortly after release or on release day every UT game except the unreal championship games, as they were xbox only crap (restrictive releases are stupid IMO), and played the hell out of all of them. UT3 is a good game, it's biggest crime is IT'S NOT UT99 OR UT2K4, both of which were (and still are) extremely popular and apparently what people keep comparing it to. So many things about UT3 are so different from its predecessors that it alienated allot of fans b4 they gave it a full chance. I can see why so many people desire to play it and as such pirate the game... I also desired to play the game I however bought it, I have in fact bought the game for about 4 different friends who would have otherwise probably pirated it

I think the piracy issue needs dealt with not just for the sake of the game but the industry. I don't want PC games to go away, as such I have a dim view of game piracy. Though a rather lackadaisical view of software piracy in general as from my observations most people who use a app allot will eventually buy a legit copy.

I encourage any1 who hasn't bought it to do so, and then get online so I can pown your new PC's on my old outdated not even supposed to play UT3 PC (I am still on the midrange comp I built for UT2K4) ... ok well maybe not but I do damn good for my machine and I will probably make life hell for you.

... Basically Im saying that the PC market is really big but apparently everyone on consoles pay for all of their games even though they dont have keys or any form of copy protection what so ever. ...

Are you being serious or is that sarcasm(so hard to tell in when typed out)? Have you ever heard of ROMs/and Emulator's? Also there are programs that will dupe console game discs onto DVD's or Blueray discs ... so consoles aren't immune to piracy either.

 

[Jonathan]

I hope Gamespy wasn't his source for this information.

 

[MonsOlympus]

Are you being serious or is that sarcasm(so hard to tell in when typed out)? Have you ever heard of ROMs/and Emulator's? Also there are programs that will dupe console game discs onto DVD's or Blueray discs ... so consoles aren't immune to piracy either.

Yeah that was sarcasm

 

[Unregistered]

If UT3 on PC sucks so badly, why would anyone bother pirating it in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to pirate a "good" game?

Thats the point they haven't, it's just some FUD statistic that means nothing and is being used as an excuse to blame an easy scapegoat.

Where are all these pirate servers running with thousands of players signed in ? Frankly if they all just downloaded illegal copies to play the single player campaign I'm sure most will regret the bandwidth wasted.

 

[Mad Max RW]

I only quickly scanned this thread, so if anyone else already pointed out the obvious then I apologize for sounding redundant.

Just because there were 40 million attempts DOES NOT mean 40 million individual pirates. Anybody with knowledge on how pirating works would realize key scripts are written to generate millions of possible cd keys per minute until you get a handful of working ones. One my of favorite websites that's not even considered illegal is dedicated to unlocking all sorts of programs from games to photo editing software using this exact technique.

For a game as unpopular as UT3, I'd bet the actual number of those who pirated is between 5-50 thousand. Quite a few lost sales, except the majority takes place in Russia and Asian countries. Epic is just passing the blame onto something irrelevant in order to focus completely on consoles and not look like the bad guy. And eventually their lack of abilities will catch up with them. Granted, GoW was a success, but everything else they made or were closely responsible for on consoles sucked. Historically, every single PC dev that threw all their eggs into the console basket has failed in the long run.

 

[SuperDre]

this looks promising, 40mil people were smart enough not to buy ut3. there is hope for humanity after all. If i was a game developer i would be thrilled on hearing this news... 40mil potential pre orders for ut4. if i hadnt pirated ut99 epic never would have got the $100+ dollars i spent on future ut games. typical epic bs... making excuses for failure as always

You really haven't got a clue what you are talking about.. I guess you don't have any brains at all.. Piracy on the PC is the death of PCgames, and more and more developers are flocking over to consoles (even Epic stated that Unreal Engine 4 would first appear on the consoles) because of morons like you.. There just isn't a good excuse to pirate any game, if you can't afford a game then wait until you can. I see idiots like you spending tons of money on upgrading their PC's to the latest of the latest hardware and then bitching about the prices of the games.. I've got an 5 year old rig (which wasn't the best even at that time) and I only replaced the ati9800pro with a nvidia 7600GT (last year because the ati broke down), and I can play UT3 at a high resolution (1680x1050), so UT3 is very scalable..
Your rant is nothing but an idiots rant..